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San Francisco Chronicle

June 25, 2014

S.F. supervisors approve Treasure Island transfers

By Marisa Lagos

The redevelopment of Treasure Island is moving forward, after the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a measure that clears the way for parts of the island to be transferred to the city by the end of the year.

The U.S. Navy, which still owns the island, continues to undertake radiation surveys, and a lawsuit challenging the city’s environmental review of the proposed development is still winding its way through the appeals process.

But on Tuesday, the board overwhelmingly supported a resolution accepting the environmental review and allowing the city’s Treasure Island Development Authority to move forward with the transfer.

The city expects that the eastern end of the island, along with all of Yerba Buena Island, will be transferred from the Navy to San Francisco by the end of 2014, and that developers Lennar and Wilson Meany will begin work soon after. The western end of the island, where the radiation testing is ongoing and where residents currently live, won’t be transferred to the city until at least 2016.

The redevelopment plan calls for 8,000 homes, 25 percent of them affordable. It will also include 300 acres of parkland.

Also Tuesday, the board unanimously approved a measure that will allow the Sheriff’s Department to significantly reduce how much jail inmates and their families pay for phone calls. Under the proposed contract negotiated by Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi and approved by the board, the average cost for a 15-minute collect phone call within the city would drop by 38 percent, from $4.45 to $2.75. A 15-minute long-distance call within California would plummet by 70 percent, from $13.35 to $4.05.

Both measures must be approved one more time by the Board of Supervisors and signed by the mayor.

Read the original story here.